(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The court said the sanction was hence ?void? and not a legal and valid sanction under pota.
in what could be a jolt for the gujarat government the supreme court has acquitted all six convicts three of whom were awarded death sentence in the 2002 sensational terror attack on gujarat’s famous akshardham temple in the state capital of gandhinagar.
while setting free all the six who were concurrently convicted by the trial court and then by the gujarat high court the apex court also slammed the investigating agency for its shoddy investigation and the gujarat government for not applying its mind before slapping the now- extinct prevention of terrorist activities (pota) act. the court blamed the home minister for “clear non-application of mind...in granting sanction” since it was based neither on an informed decision nor on an independent analysis of facts. the court said the sanction was hence ‘void’ and not a legal and valid sanction under pota.
gujarat chief minister narendra modi held the portfolio in november 2003 when sanction to prosecute them under pota was granted.
the terror attack on the temple with a spacious leafy complex had claimed 32 lives. adam ajmeri shan miya alias chand khan from bareilly and mufti abdul qyyum mansuri were awarded death sentence by a pota court in july 2006 which the high court had confirmed in 2010.
as for other three accused while a youth from ahmedabad mohammed salim shaikh was sentenced to life imprisonment abdulmiyan qadri was given a 10-year term and altaf hussain was sentenced to imprisonment for five years.
two militants murtuza hafiz yasin and ashraf ali mohammed farooq who had sprayed bullets indiscriminately from their ak-56 rifles and used hand grenades to kill 32 devotees and tourists were shot dead by nsg commandos who were pressed into action after the gunmen entered the temple on september 24 2002.
three commandos including one from nsg and a constable of the state reserve police (srp) were also killed during the operation. twenty-eight accused allegedly from pakistan and gulf countries are still absconding.
prosecution had claimed that accused had links with banned terrorist organization like jaish-e-mohammad and lashkar-e-taiba. some were also alleged to be linked to pakistan intelligence agency isi.
not long ago congress national general secretary madhusudan mistry who on friday lost the lok sabha elections to modi in vadodara had said that he suspected the gujarat chief minister knew in advance about the akshardham attack which he said took place “just a hundred yards from the chief minister’s residence”.
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